Final Fantasy VII: The Novel
by The Bennus
Summary: Just a little project that I started and now can't seem to put down.   This is a novelisation of the PS game Final Fantasy VII  I thought, If films can have novels, why shouldn't games?  It follows the plot fairly closely.


This could be space, a place of infinity and of infinite possibilities. Who knows what may be happening out there, what is happening far out there. As you watch them the stars start to spin, spinning in the night sky in some great celestial dance. From here the lights of the city give them a greenish hue, a sense of otherworldliness hanging over the world. But then, perspective shifts, and these are not stars after all, but a shower of Mako, sprung from a burst pipe in a small, dark alley.

The young girl straightens, and turning away from the pipe makes her way out into the darkened smoggy streets. She checks to make sure that it's safe, and steps into the road.

The city sleeps, the background hum of the eight Mako reactors that circle the city providing a gentle lullaby. This is Midgar, the greatest city in the world. Here is where the Shinra Company rules everyone and everything on the planet with an iron fist. Any dissention is not tolerated, and members of the Shinra standing army, SOLDIER, are sent to deal with any "problems". The Shinra holds on to power thanks to the discovery of Mako. Originally a weapons producing company, after the last Great War, its scientists stumbled onto this new power source almost by accident. They found that Mako was more efficient than the other power sources the world was using. The first of these extraction and production reactors was built in a small town in the mountains and then, after this trail run was successful, Mako reactors sprung up everywhere. Like the giant reactors that tower over everything in Midgar, forever pulling the Mako energy out of the earth, bathing the city in an eerie green light.

The train pulled into the station as normal, on time for a change. The guards exchanged a glance and stepped forwards to begin checking the passengers as they disembarked. Just another routine on the night shift. From out of nowhere a man landed on the first guard, knocking him to the ground. A woman quickly followed, landing a knockout punch on the second. A glance around and they were gone, as a larger man leapt from the roof of the train, and darted out of the station after them. The fourth waited for a moment looking around to check that a young blond man followed him. He was dark skinned, and well muscled, as he had to be, for his right arm was missing below the elbow, and instead there hung a large metal cannon. He was wearing cargo pants, and an open sleeveless jacket, inside which he had some metal bands strapped around his lower torso to support his back. As he watched the young man behind him jump from the train, he spoke. His voice was deep and rough and he said "Follow me."

The blond man shrugged, and sprinted out of the station after him.

As they went through the station two more guards came running out of a side room, separating the blond man from his companion. As they pulled out rifles, the blonde man dragged a huge sword off his back and stood facing them. He was wearing a dark blue sleeveless shirt and matching loose pants. One shoulder carried a piece of armour, and his blonde hair was done up in some large spikes. He and the guards eyed each other, and then they ran at each other. The blonde man's sword flashed twice and the guards fell to the ground. He swung his sword onto his back, and turned for the exit.

The two of them found the others crouched round a gate outside the grounds to the Number 01 Reactor. The first man turned and whistled. "Whew, you used to be in SOLDIER all right… What'd you say your name was?"

The blond man looked at him. "Cloud."

Now the dark man addressed them. "Thought I told you never to move in a group!"

The woman working on the door turned. "Ease off, Barrett, we need to get through this door first."

Barrett turned to Cloud. " Right, this here's Wedge," he said pointing to the larger man, "this is Biggs," indicating the man who had just spoken to Cloud, "and this is our explosive and electronics buff, Jessie." he finished pointing out the girl working on the door.

"I don't care about your names," replied Cloud, "Once this job's finished… I'm out of here."

"Got it!" smiled Jessie, as the gate swung open. The three of them ran through. Barrett turned to Cloud again and growled "Ex-SOLDIER, eh? Don't trust ya… I'll be keepin' an eye on you." He ran inside. Cloud looked up at the massive reactor and took a deep breath, then he followed them inside.

Slipping quietly from shadow to shadow, the team moved closer to the entrance to the Reactor itself. They encountered no resistance up to the door. "Shinra ain't expecting anyone to do anything this upfront, so security ain't too good outside the Reactors. It'll be different inside," warned Barrett.

Through the door was a bridge connecting the sector 1 and 8 plates, and a junction bridge leading to the reactor. Wedge was sent to cover the door to sector 8, and the rest of the team went inside the reactor.

At the end of a corridor they found their first challenge. "This door needs a code to open, and so does the one just through the next room," Jessie told them, "Biggs has got this one, and I know the next one."

Biggs looked up. "Code deciphered." The door slid open. As they went through Barrett said to Cloud, "These reactors are sucking all the energy outta the earth, and once that's gone the Planet'll die."

"I don't care."

"That's it! You're comin' with me now!" snapped Barrett. The original plan had been for Cloud to wait at the top of the Reactor, as Jessie and Barrett went further in. Now Cloud and Jessie were to swap places. "Code deciphered," called Jessie from the other side of the room. As they left Biggs behind to guard the doors and started to get into the elevator that would take them into the core of the Reactor, Barrett tried again.

"The Planet's dyin' Cloud! The Shinra's Reactors just keep pulling the Mako outta the ground. They're evil and killing the Planet just to line their own damn pockets with gold!"

"All I care about is finishing this job before security and the Roboguards come."

The rest of the ride down was distinctly uncomfortable, with Barrett fuming and Jessie trying to keep quiet. Cloud just looked bored.

At long last the doors pinged open. Jessie went out first, followed shortly afterwards by Cloud and Barrett. Again they kept to the shadows, moving around the sides of the raised platform towards the stairs. The floor was a metal grill, and if anyone underneath had looked up, they would have been discovered immediately. Fortunately, this part of the Reactor seemed to be deserted as they made their way down the long flight of stairs. It was dark down here, only a ruddy light to give them any glimmer of sight. The heat was starting to become oppressive as well, and they had to keep stopping to wipe the sweat out of their eyes. Much to Barrett's annoyance, Cloud didn't even look uncomfortable. "And with him carryin' that big sword on his back an' all… it just ain't right… some o' us is only human ya know…" he thought to himself, but he said nothing. He wasn't going to start complaining in front of Cloud, not while he still breathed.

Now they had reached the bottom of the stairs, and there seemed no further way down. Cloud looked at the others quizzically, but Jessie just said "Now you climb down the pipes to the Reactor core. We chose this route because there was less chance of being spotted."

Cloud nodded and clambered on the pipe she indicated.

"Don't worry, there should be some service ladders further down."

"Right."

As they began to climb down they saw Jessie pacing backwards and forwards, a look of strained worry on her face.

True to Jessie's word there were some bars bolted onto the pipes not far down, forming a crude ladder. They moved down the maze of pipes slowly crawling downwards, until at last they came to a long ladder leading to a narrow walkway above a swirling, glowing liquid. As they climbed down Barrett noticed with some satisfaction the Cloud was at last starting to show some emotion, frowning as if in some confusion. "Only human…" he thought with a smile.

They moved along the walkway saying nothing, their boots clanging on the metal grill. They stopped halfway along, Barrett watching as Cloud stooped and picked up a small green rock. He examined the handle of his sword, shrugged and pocketed the rock. "Now what was that about?" thought Barrett, as they resumed walking.

Finally they came to the core of the Reactor, the power regulator. Were this to stop working, the energy being built up inside the Reactor would quickly build up and overload, causing a massive explosion. Cloud understood this much, but had so far been kept in the dark as to how they were going to shut down the regulator. Now Barrett looked at him holding out a small mechanical device. "Here, you set the bomb, Cloud."

"Shouldn't you do it?"

"I gotta watch to make sure you don't pull nothing."

"Fine."

Cloud took the bomb and walked towards the regulator. Suddenly he stopped and collapsed to his knees.

_//Be careful!//_

what?

_//This isn't just a Reactor!//_

"Cloud? Cloud?"

"What?"

Cloud picked himself up. "What happened?" asked Barrett.

"Nothing. I… I'm all right"

Cloud walked forwards and paced the bomb onto the regulator. After making sure it was secure he armed it. As he did so, an alarm rang out. Barrett swore. "Busted!"

"Heads up!" called Cloud, pointing to the end of the walkway, where a large shape was coming quickly at them, "Here they come!"

And then the thing was upon them.

When the alarm went off Wedge nearly bolted. He knew he would be the first to meet the enemy if they hung around too long, as they would be coming through the door he was guarding. Still, they always knew this might happen, and now he just had to hope that Barrett's plan would work.

Biggs shrunk into the shadows as the alarm went off. He was aware that any personnel actually in the reactor would be heading down to the lower levels, where Barrett was. But there was no point being too prominent…

As the alarm sounded Jessie jumped, and stumbled backwards, nearly losing her balance on the walkway. She sighed and mentally told herself off for being so nervous. But still, it was AVALANCHE's first militant action; no one could blame her for being tense. It was only when she tried to start pacing again that she realised her foot was trapped in a gap between the metal bars.

Barrett blinked the sweat out of his eyes. The fight was not going at all well. The robot that had attacked them was shaped like a scorpion, but instead of claws it had an assault cannon on each arm. His gun arm hadn't been doing much damage, because the robots armour was too thick. Cloud had been taking swipes at it when he could get close enough, but the robot was keeping him at bay. Then it stopped. Just like that, and then lifted it's tail. Cloud had shouted something about not attacking it while it's tail was up, but he hadn't listened and then it counterattacked with a goddamn laser. And that was how he found himself here picking himself up off the floor. As he looked across at Cloud he saw the young man sling his sword onto his back. "What the Hell?" he thought, and then looked in shock as lightning shot from Clouds outstretched hands to the robot. The blast blew off several pieces of armour, and Cloud shouted to Barrett "Now! Hit it where it's exposed!"

Barrett focused through the sweat, taking aim at what looked like a fuel line. His shot went awry, however, and punctured an exposed sheet of metal. The robot shook once, and then exploded.

"What the hell did I hit?" he gasped to Cloud, as they picked themselves up.

"It's power plant, I think."

"How long 'til the bomb blows?"

Cloud turned back to the regulator. "Ten minutes."

"Oh shit…"

Jessie was really panicing now, nothing she tried was getting her leg free. The sound of the alarm and the hissing of the steam were getting to her now, she couldn't hear anything but the klaxons. She blinked, trying to clear her eyes of what she told herself was sweat, thinking to herself "_Great! The reactors going to blow, and I'm not going to get free and I'm going to die here..._" when a shape flew past her. Eyes blurred, she couldn't make out the shape that turned and stalked back to her. It seemed to point something at her, when it stumbled, and fell. Wiping her eyes clear she saw Cloud step over the fallen guard and kneel down to examine her leg. Murmuring to himself, she watched in amazement as the bars around her ankle froze and shattered.

"Thanks!" she gasped, moving past him towards the elevator.

The journey upwards seemed to take forever, the service lift clanking and spluttering towards the surface. Cloud seemed relaxed as ever, leaning against the wall gazing into space. Jessie kept glancing at her watch, her nerves still jangling. Barrett was pacing in the confined space, shooting his eyes skywards, willing the elevator up. By the time the doors opened they had only four minutes left.


End file.
